BENGALURU: Danish Sait’s latest video depicting the life of a delivery partner has irked many, including an anonymous Twitter handle (@delivery bhoy), who is on a mission to stand up against the harsh working conditions of delivery agents. Recently, Sait, comedian-actor-content creator, found himself in a sticky situation, after his paid partnership with a popular food delivery app was at the receiving end of harsh backlash.
Sait, in particular, called out by the Twitter handle, who pointed out that his portrayal of a delivery agent was far from reality. Delivery Bhoy aka Rahul Singh (name changed on request) feels the loopholes in the system need to be cleared from within. He believes that the French Biryani actor lacked the knowledge and understanding of the nature of jobs of delivery executives.
“As delivery executives, we don’t sit with a mug of coffee and wait for an order to come in. We are not given any sort of warm welcome at restaurants, neither do we have the time to chat with their staff as depicted in the video,” says Singh, who works with a prominent food delivery app. Owing to the current job scenario, Singh, who holds a Master’s degree in English Literature, was compelled to work as a delivery partner. Ruffled by the industry’s working environment, Singh, through his Twitter handle, aims to expose the poor working conditions forced upon delivery executives.
The trigger point for Singh to speak against the injustice, was when he met with an accident three months ago. “I was all well with the work until I met with an accident and escaped with minor injuries. The company made no effort to help me. This is when I decided to expose all the falsehoods of what they promise their employees,” says Singh, who works as a tele-caller by day and delivery partner by night. He said that the food delivery app model has put every rider in debt. “It is very tough for any rider to jump the ship and quit the job because of financial constraints,” he rues.
The aggressive mode of riding and skipping signals is because the company withholds the time information from the delivery partner, claims Singh. Contrary to the belief created in the video where Sait claims that there is a deadline to catch, “the truth, however, is more complex”. “The rider is not given the information of when to reach the restaurant or the time to deliver the food. We are bombarded with automated calls from executives who constantly inquire on the status of the delivery of the package.
The only option the rider has is to zoom past the streets to deliver on time, otherwise, he is fined. The video featuring Danish Sait is something that is happening in a parallel universe,” says Singh, who now demands for the imposition of regulations in the system. Sait, who later apologised and deleted the video from his social media accounts, took to Twitter to clarify the intention of the video. “I respect the work you (Singh) do. I promise you the intent of the video came from a good place; the purpose was to celebrate and appreciate what delivery partners do, in fact that’s how the video ends – it emphasises on how much easy they make our lives,” he wrote.
As delivery executives, we don’t sit with a mug of coffee and wait for an order to come in. We are not given any sort of warm welcome at restaurants, neither do we have the time to chat with their staff as depicted in the video by Danish Sait — @Delivery Bhoy aka Rahul Singh